By Tracey Eaton / The
Dallas Morning News. Wednesday | February 14, 2001
HAVANA – Young Cuban soldiers in crew cuts and green fatigues huddled
around a computer screen, trying to fathom a risque Web site that urged "Join
Now! Major Credit Cards Accepted." A few feet away, coffeepot vendor Oscar
González surfed the Web for a dive watch under $100.
"How's this thing work?" he asked, tapping the keyboard. "I'm
new at this."
Indeed, it was a remarkable scene. Cubans at last week's International Book
Fair in Havana had free and unrestricted Internet access, for a few fleeting
days at least.
The government's unusual concession, analysts say, is part of a much broader
strategy to give Cubans more information about the outside world – and
prepare them for a new onslaught from their powerful foes in the United States.
Even before George W. Bush took office, Washington began stepping up efforts
to force Fidel Castro from power. For example, the U.S. Agency for International
Development plans to give some $5 million this fiscal year to nonprofit
anti-Castro groups, compared with $6.4 million for the entire period from 1996
to April 2000.
The epic contest for the hearts and minds of 11 million Cubans is heating up
once again, and Cuban-American exiles are in the thick of it.
In February, their largest and most powerful lobby group, the Cuban-American
National Foundation, opened an office in a townhouse just blocks from the White
House. Jorge Mas Santos, leader of the group and son of its founder, Jorge Mas
Canosa, called it the "Embassy for a Free Cuba."
And though it's not really an embassy, the exiles are dead serious about
playing a role in Cuba after Mr. Castro, 74, is no longer around.
Taking offense
All this deeply offends Cuban officials, who say U.S. policy is "criminal"
because of its single goal – that of ousting Mr. Castro. Why, they ask,
can't Cuba choose its own form of government? And why, now that the Cold War is
over, is their beleaguered, cash-strapped island a threat to the most powerful
nation on earth?
Increasing numbers of Americans – ranging from farmers in Texas to
businessmen in New York – agree and call for a less hostile approach toward
Cuba. Engage Mr. Castro, they say. End the ban on trade with Cuba, then flood
the island with American dollars, tourists, ideas and culture.
Cuban officials say that all the competing interests mark a new "battle
of ideas," an information war. And it began months ago when a little
shipwrecked boy named Elián González was held in the United States
against the wishes of his father in Cuba.
Mr. Castro launched a nationwide campaign to press for the boy's return.
"Immediately, Castro understood the value of this propaganda,"
Vicki Huddleston, chief of the U.S. mission in Havana, said in a recent speech.
"This allowed him to mobilize the Cuban population, and in particular, the
Cuban youth."
Yet even after Elián's return to Cuba, the protests and nationally
televised, politically charged roundtables continued.
"We've had marches in every major Cuban city ... roundtables every
night, every day; Castro on center stage ... where he is able to attack not only
the United States government, but the Cuban-American community," Ms.
Huddleston said. "The revealing thing is, however, that nothing has
changed. If the fundamental Cuba policy is 'nothing changes,' the fundamental
U.S. policy is 'everything changes.'"
Cuban officials sharply disagree. First of all, they say, Cuba is changing,
opening up gradually to the outside world, evolving, adapting. Secondly, they
say, their information campaign is working. Key players in U.S. policy toward
Cuba are becoming household names to the general public.
"Elián gave us the opportunity to start this battle of ideas, to
allow the youngest generations to participate," one Cuban official said.
For the Cuban government, reinvigorating the 1959 revolution is crucial now,
experts say, because U.S. policy toward Cuba may harden under the Bush
administration.
Publicly, Bush officials vow no change in sanctions policy. At his
confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, for
instance, Secretary of State Colin Powell told Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., that he
agreed with the U.S. ban on trade with Cuba.
"Mr. Castro is an aging starlet who will not change in this lifetime,
and we will have to keep containing him. And it's President Bush's intention to
keep the sanctions in place," Mr. Powell said.
A State Department official who requested anonymity said: "It's too
early to say whether policy to Cuba will change at all. There are people on both
sides of the issue who want to see it get weaker or tougher. We just have to
wait and see."
Among those who want sanctions to get weaker are many American farmers,
business organizations and humanitarian groups.
"Although there appears to be little optimism that official relations
between the United States and Cuba will be improving soon, the facts demonstrate
that there is already a change in relations taking place between the people of
both countries," said William J. Hauf, president of the U.S. Association
for International Business and Trade, based in Washington.
"Thousands of Americans have visited Cuba and ... this has resulted in
the development of thousands of close friendships."
Possible solutions
Others see the possibility of creative solutions to the U.S.-Cuba dispute.
Mexico and its new president, Vicente Fox, could become a valuable mediator,
some diplomats suggest, though Cuban officials say they doubt that will happen.
"We don't need an intermediary," one said.
Still others say it's impossible to say what will happen because there has
always been a certain unpredictability to U.S.-Cuba relations. In 2000, for
instance, Congress made it illegal for Americans to travel to Cuba. Then earlier
this year, the law was repealed, although strict currency restrictions remain.
"Last year nobody thought repealing the travel ban had a prayer, then
it passed the House by 50 votes. So we'll see," said Philip Peters, a State
Department official in the Reagan and George Bush administrations.
Cuban officials remain largely pessimistic, saying they doubt President Bush
will risk softening U.S. policy toward Cuba because that might hurt the
re-election chances of his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, in two years.
"It's hard to imagine how the situation will be resolved," said
Ricardo Alarcón, president of Cuba's National Assembly.
Wayne Smith, the former chief U.S. diplomat in Havana, agrees, saying he
doubts U.S. policy toward Cuba will change significantly, at least in the next
four years.
"In a sense, Bush is caught between Wall Street, or what business
wants, and that tiny little group of hard-line exiles in Miami. Their claim to
being the margin of victory in Florida is of course utterly specious, but Bush
will do his utmost to avoid offending them. I'm sure he just wishes the whole
thing would go away. But it won't."
Mr. Smith described U.S. policy toward Cuba as "stupid, irrational"
and "utterly counterproductive."
"Our policy today is more draconian than it has ever been. I think it
comes down to U.S. political leaders simply not being able to face dealing with
Fidel because he defied us and got away with it."
U.S. officials defend their policy and say their overriding goal is to bring
about a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba. Among their main tools is what
they call their "people-to-people program," aimed at increasing ties
between Americans and Cubans and helping Cubans develop a civil society and
learn to govern themselves.
Cuban officials say they don't worry about people-to-people contact. More
than a million foreign tourists, including thousands of Americans, visited Cuba
last year, and the government didn't crumble, one official said.
"We are not afraid of being contaminated," he said. "The
problem is that the purpose of the people-to-people program is to subvert our
country's internal order."
Anti-Castro sentiment
Mr. Castro's foes have made no secret of their hopes that the U.S.
government will undermine the socialist regime. Cuba, they contend, remains a
largely closed society, despite the latest information campaign.
"Prior to the revolution, Cuba had 58 newspapers and 28 television
stations; today, Cuba has two television stations and a handful of newspapers,
all controlled by the government," said Ms. Huddleston, head of the U.S.
mission.
Mr. Mas Santos said he wants to equip dissidents with "computers,
printers, cellular phones, fax machines, Internet devices and the very latest in
other communications equipment, such as wireless technologies, satellites and so
forth. It is imperative that the U.S. works to effectively expand the free flow
of information."
Both he and Mr. Helms want to model the U.S. approach toward Cuba after
former President Ronald Reagan's policy toward Poland. And they are optimistic.
"The new Bush administration has a golden opportunity to develop a new
Cuba policy. The model for such a new Cuba policy should be the successful
policies of the Reagan-Bush administration used in the 1980s to undermine
communism in Poland," Mr. Helms said.
Predicted the senator: "Before his term is up, President Bush will
visit Havana – to attend the inauguration of the new democratically elected
president of Cuba."
Castro loyalists shake their heads at such talk.
"Cuba is no Poland," one official said. "All we want are
normal relations with the United States. It's the other side that doesn't want
that. Not us."
Staff writer Alfredo Corchado in Washington, D.C., contributed to this
report.
(c) 2001 The Dallas Morning News | 